Underdog Mount St. Mary's banking on its guards

BUFFALO - Mount St. Mary's gets a chance to play the defending national champion Thursday night in the NCAA tournament at the KeyBank Center, but seeing Villanova wearing the opponent's uniforms is not going to intimidate its players.

The No. 16 seed Mountaineers (20-15), who advanced after defeating New Orleans, 67-66, in a First Four game Tuesday night in Dayton, Ohio, played six NCAA tournament teams - all on the road - in their nonconference schedule. They lost all six, the closest being 89-76 at Arkansas, but they got a feel for what it takes to compete against quality teams.

"I have such a great belief in the guys we have on our roster," Mount coach Jamion Christian said Wednesday. "We've challenged ourselves to the highest levels we could this season, playing six NCAA tournament teams, playing on the road against some of the very best. You have to believe at some point that your preparation has you ready for this moment."

Christian played three seasons at Mount St. Mary's for coach Jim Phelan, the Philadelphia native and La Salle graduate who won 830 games in 49 years as head coach at the school in Emmitsburg, Md. He said he learned from Phelan that good guards and good players "allow you to be a really good coach."

"One thing Coach Phelan was always great with is, he always gave his guards a ton of freedom," Christian said. "Every day we came into practice and did very similar things. But it was all about being free and allowing the guys to play with a lot of confidence."

The Mountaineers, making their fifth NCAA appearance, have three solid guards, including 5-foot-5 junior Junior Robinson, who scored 23 points against New Orleans. He averages 14.3 points, shoots 86.8 percent from the free-throw line, and has no problem throwing down a dunk.

Robinson has a sense of humor about his size: "Each game, I'm going to probably be the shortest player on the court. Actually, I am going to be the shortest player on the court.

"I've embraced it," he said. "It's kind of like a chip on my shoulder to prove people wrong, that height really doesn't matter. It's about the heart that you have and the passion that you play the game with."

Mount's other starting guards are 6-foot sophomore Elijah Long, who leads the team in scoring (15.1 points per game), assists (4.4), and steals (1.6), and 6-5 freshman Miles Wilson, who had 17 points and 11 rebounds Tuesday night.

The Mountaineers shoot the three (36.1 percent, 7.3 per game), defend the three, and force turnovers (14.9 per game).

"The word that Coach always says is mayhem, " Long said. "It's like a controlled chaos. It's just trying to turn the other team over a lot . . . just fastbreaks, a lot of fastbreaks, alley-oop dunks, and just being able to play off each other's energy."